‘Breaking Away’ director Peter Yates dies at age 81

British filmmaker Peter Yates, best known to Hoosiers as the director of “Breaking Away,” died Sunday in London at the age of 81.

“Breaking Away,” which premiered in 1979, is a coming-of-age story about four teenagers growing up in Bloomington.

The movie follows their adolescent struggles and a cycling race based out of IU that changes the main character’s life.

Yates’ film did more than just show a collegiate cycling race. Former Acacia rider George Huntington said the movie elevated the profile of the race and of Bloomington, as well.

“When I travel professionally and tell people I’m from Bloomington most people ask me, ‘Oh do you swim in the quarries? Do you ride in the race?’” he said.

Huntington rode in the Little 500 and later became an extra in the movie. He remembers that as an extra, he and his fellow riders weren’t sure the movie would be anything special.

“The stands weren’t full when they filmed it, and there was a lot of
standing around and waiting for a shot that would last for a minute or two,” Huntington said.

“It really was an exercise in the Hollywood magic that the Peter Yates of the world really do know what they’re doing. Making a good movie is something that they have a vision, they know the scenes that they need and know how to edit and splice it together and make it really work.”

In 1980, the film was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and won an Oscar for Best Screen Writing. It ranks eighth on the list of America’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies, which was compiled by the American Film Institute in 2006.

“‘Breaking Away’ is a wonderfully sunny, funny, goofy, intelligent movie that makes you feel about as good as any movie in a long time. It is, in fact, a treasure,” Roger Ebert wrote in his critique of the film.

Yates is best known in the film world for directing the film “Bullitt,” his first U.S. movie, which featured a famous chase scene in which actor Steve McQueen drove a Mustang through San Francisco.

Yates also directed three actors to Oscar nominations, one of which was actress Barbara Barrie for Best Supporting Actress in “Breaking Away.”

Tom Schwoegler, a former 20-year coach of Acacia and the current coach of Wing It and Sigma Chi, worked as the technical adviser for the film.

“When we started to look at Little 500 sequences, Peter was like, ‘OK when a team rides in, what’s going in their heads for the exchange? We want to shoot it, but we want to do more than shoot it. We want to capture the emotional context of this aspect of the race,’” Schwoegler said.

Doug Rafferty, who announced for the Cinzano 100 in the film, worked next to Yates for about only two weekends, but said he recognized the fact that what Yates was doing was special.

“His death, it saddens me because it’s another episode of Indiana University life that is slipping away,” Rafferty said. “There’s two generations now alive that didn’t know what that film was all about. That’s why I have a copy.”